Blue Fox Advertising

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I was the former head of sales at Top Job Asphalt, an asphalt paving and maintenance service provider. My role was to build relationships with municipal or business clients. If they wanted to build a parking lot, for example, we bid on the process. I also followed up with clients to see whether we could help them build more value through our products. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Blue Fox Advertising?

I worked closely with Blue Fox to revamp our sales pipeline. When I started working for the company, our closure rate was so low; the company hadn’t done any follow-ups with clients. They also hadn’t set any automation up — it was a messy process. As a result, Josh (CEO) and I had meetings to look at the pipeline front to back to improve the pipeline. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Josh and the Blue Fox team helped us pull better leads while we adjusted the way we do marketing. Initially, we had a consultation session with them around our sales processes. To help us understand where our marketing dollars were going, they asked what we’d been doing and why. Overall, we asked a lot of questions through the consultation. 

Then, they worked on our Google, Facebook, and LinkedIn ads. Eventually, Blue Fox created new email signatures, backgrounds, and other content for us. For instance, Tanner (Project Manager) created content for us when we had a trade show by printing fliers and creating actual paper marketing materials. He also created a QR code for the people we met at the trade show. Overall, they became a one-stop-shop for our marketing and content needs. 

On top of that, Blue Fox provided us with HubSpot automation services. While doing this, Josh considered the fact that I wanted to personally interact with customers. As a result, they adjusted the workflows so that when someone emailed us back, I could engage them in a personalized way. In other words, they automated the process as much as it was necessary until a conversation with a customer happened. 

What is the team composition?

We mainly worked with Josh and Tanner. 

How did you come to work with Blue Fox Advertising?

I was already working closely with Blue Fox when I started working at Top Job Asphalt. 

How much have you invested with them?

We spent between $18,000–$20,000 on Blue Fox’s services. 

What is the status of this engagement?

Our partnership lasted from September 2019–May 2021. Outside of this project, I still work with them as my go-to marketing team in my new position at a different company. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

During our partnership, we doubled our sales. Top Job Asphalt went from being a $2 million company to being a $4 million one — it was absolutely wild. In numbers, we earned around $1.7 million in sales in 2018. Then, we earned a little over $2.4 million in 2019. After revamping our sales process and working with Blue Fox, we made over $4.2 million in sales. 

Our partnership also created new processes where incoming leads increased by 50%. Our closure rate also doubled. In other words, we didn’t only have more incoming leads; we also handled them better. We attribute this to the consultation sessions where we dug deep into every stage of our interaction with customers. 

Moreover, we saw higher open rates on our emails. Every time Blue Fox sent an email blast to our contacts, we received 30–40 leads. As our team got into specific services, our average order value went up. On top of that, every single job we did became more profitable. In fact, we eventually had to slow things down and take only the work that we wanted to do. Given that, we could raise our prices a little while offering a bit more quality. Likewise, we no longer worried about getting as much work as possible; we were only concerned with finding the right work and making it profitable.  

Furthermore, I was always amazed at how Blue Fox accomplished things that seemed impossible — they were incredible. If we didn’t know how to make something happen but needed it the next day, we’d call Blue Fox. We knew that Josh would always figure things out. There was no question about it; he would always get things done. 

How did Blue Fox Advertising perform from a project management standpoint?

The HubSpot automation service that Blue Fox provided was top-notch. When I wanted to automate something, I simply asked Josh if it was possible. I’d tell him what the system should be doing, and he’d come back to me after just an hour, telling me it was done. For context, I was the only salesperson in the company for the duration of our partnership. 

In other words, he made my life easier, and that was a huge value-add for our company. Josh and his team made it possible for one person to do all the work of a team of salespeople through HubSpot automation. Prior to the engagement, we spent plenty of money on HubSpot but were using only a tenth of its capabilities.

To communicate, we did face-to-face meetings. We had multiple meetings in the beginning to hash out the whole process and get to the bottom of our issues. In the end, we met every couple of days over Zoom, and we used screen sharing features during calls. Typically, the Zoom meetings were followed by emails of what we talked about. If something needed to be confirmed, we also used emails. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Blue Fox didn’t try to take advantage of me. When I spoke to them, the discussions were all about the issues and the most efficient ways to solve them. Josh was also highly reasonable and took care of us. For comparison, I’d been in contact with plenty of other marketing agencies, and they were squirrely when it came to what they were charging us. 

In a nutshell, Blue Fox wasn’t only efficient in solving our problems; they were also under or right on the hourly quote they gave. If the problems became bigger, I was ok with spending more money. Given that, their team was always upfront in telling us how many hours the projects would take and if we were going to exceed the estimated hours. With them, I was never in the dark on what we were being charged, so I was happy to pay. The partnership was highly transparent and upfront, so I trust them. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there weren’t any. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

If you’re interested in working with Blue Fox, prepare for your first call and tell them exactly what your problems are and what you want to accomplish. If you bring those to the table upfront and explain your goals clearly, the Blue Fox team will figure things out. To sum it up, show up with clear goals and metrics to track them. If you do that, you’ll have a great experience with them.